Use of alfalfa pellets as an alternative greenhouse tomato fertilization method

A tomato experiment  was established on February 20th 2019 and was terminated in July 25th  2019. In this experiment the commercial tomato hybrid ‘Nissos F1’ grafted onto the commercial rootstock ‘Maxifort F1’ was planted, at a density of 2.13 plants m-2.
In treatment 1, which was considered as control, no other source of N was applied except for farmyard manure (FYM) at a rate of 170 kg ha-1 which had been incorporated to the soil on August 7th, 2018 before the establishment of the preceding tomato crop (GE1E3). In treatments 2 and 3, alfalfa pellets (2.72 % N, 10% moisture) were applied at a rate of 330 g m-2 and 660 g m-2 respectively. Finally, in treatment 4, faba bean grown outside the greenhouse was applied as a natural organic fertilizer contributing biologically-fixed N, at a rate of 4 kg m-2 fresh biomass.